Two Peruvian journalists found guilty of defamation

New
York, June 6, 2012--An appeals court in Peru must overturn the guilty verdict handed
down yesterday to two Peruvian journalists charged with defamation, the
Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

A
court in Lima sentenced Juan Carlos Tafur, editor of the daily Diario 16, and Roberto More Chávez, a reporter
for the paper, each to two-year suspended prison sentences and a fine of 60,000
nuevos soles (US$22,200) in damages, according to news reports. The case
stemmed from More's January 2011 article in Diario 16 that linked a prominent
retired general to a family with alleged connections to drug trafficking.

More
reported in the article that Diario 16 had
accessed a police document that linked Gen. Antonio Ketín Vidal Herrera, the
country's former Minister of the Interior, to the Sánchez Paredes family, several
members of whom have been indicted for money laundering, according to news
reports. After the article was published, Vidal filed a complaint, saying the
report was wrong and that it had damaged his honor and reputation, according to
news reports.

"We
condemn this sentence against Juan Carlos Tafur and Roberto More Chávez, and we
urge Peruvian judicial authorities to reverse his conviction upon appeal," said
Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas. "Tafur and
More are the latest in a string of Peruvian journalists to be convicted under
anachronistic criminal defamation provisions. We call on authorities to bring
the country's law into line with international standards on freedom of
expression."

Local press group IPYS
reported that at the time of the article's publication, Vidal was considering
running for vice president. According to a report in Diario 16, the judge claimed in the
ruling that the defendants had set out to damage the general's honor by
publishing the article during an election season.

The defendants' lawyers denounced alleged procedural
irregularities during the trial, including the fact that More and Tafur had
been prohibited from testifying in their own defense, according to Diaro 16. The daily La Repúblicareported on
Sunday that a judicial anti-corruption unit recommended that the judge in the
proceedings be fined in connection with these irregularities. The defense said they
would appeal the sentence, according to news reports.

Journalists in Peru have repeatedly been targeted with criminal defamation complaints for reporting on local
corruption. On July 21, congress approved changes in the penal code that
eliminated jail terms for defamation while increasing fines and community
service, a development that CPJ called an important first step in dismantling
the archaic criminal defamation laws used by public officials to silence
critical reporters. However, before leaving office on July 28, former President
Alan García sent the bill with some modifications back to congress, where it
has been awaiting a vote ever since, according to IPYS.

For more than a decade, courts and legislatures throughout
the region have found that civil remedies provide adequate redress in cases of alleged libel and slander. Yet some
governments in the region continue to use archaic criminal defamation laws to
silence dissent. In May, CPJ launched
the campaign "Critics
are not Criminals" to help fight the criminalization of speech
in the Americas.